Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller is seeking information from a British official about whether the News International phone hacking scandal involves American citizens or possible violations of U.S. laws.

Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) asked Lord Justice Brian Leveson, the official leading a British inquiry, in letter Wednesday “whether any of the evidence" Leveson is reviewing "suggests that these unethical and sometimes illegal business practices occurred in the United States or involved U.S. citizens.”

On Tuesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the FCC to revoke the 27 broadcast licenses News Corp., News International’s parent company, holds in the United States. CREW alleges that News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s “character deficiencies may warrant disqualification from holding a license.”

The scandal exploded in Britain in July, amid allegations that the phones of a murdered schoolgirl, relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of London bombings, were hacked into for the now-shuttered News of the World newspaper. On Tuesday, a British parliamentary committee issued a report concluding that Murdoch was not fit to run the company.

The News Corp. board of directors announced Wednesday its “full confidence in Rupert Murdoch's fitness and support for his continuing to lead News Corporation into the future as its chairman and CEO.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:19 p.m. on May 2, 2012.